1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to magnetic tape read/write heads, and more specifically, to maintaining contact between a magnetic tape and tape head at high tape speeds and lower operating tape tensions.
2. Description of Related Art
As a tape moves over a tape head, an air bearing tends to form under the tape. This air bearing lifts the tape off the head, interfering with the read and write functions of the tape head. The air bearing increases as the speed of tape motion increases and as the tension of the tape decreases. In order to deal with the air bearing, tape heads are designed with slots open to ambient pressure. These slots remove the trapped air just before the tape passes over the recording gap, where the read/write elements are located, thus maintaining proper head/tape contact.
The two most common methods for eliminating an air bearing in tape drives are transverse slots and bleed slots. Bleed slots run parallel to the direction of tape motion in a downward slope. However, bleed slots require a minimum length to eliminate the air bearing, and this minimum length becomes a constraint on present tape head designs. For modern tape heads containing multiple recording gaps, small distances between the recording gaps are necessary in order to accommodate high-density data storage. The reduction of this gap-to-gap spacing is impaired by the minimum length requirements of the bleed slots.
The transverse slots run perpendicular to the direction of tape motion. One advantage of transverse slots is that they have very small width requirements, thus facilitating smaller spaces between recording gaps. Unfortunately, as the flexible tape passes over a transverse slot, the tape conforms to the slot, which results in xe2x80x9ctentingxe2x80x9d of the tape beyond the trailing edge of the slot, possibly interfering with proper head/tape contact over the recording gap. To overcome this tenting effect, the transverse slots must be placed a minimum distance from the recording gap, depending on slot width, radius, tape thickness, tape tension, etc. This minimum distance places constraints on reducing gap-to-gap spacing in head designs, resulting in problems similar to bleed slots. In addition, when the tape conforms to the transverse slots it tends to scrape against the edge of the slot, resulting in wear and debris accumulation.
Therefore, a slot design that requires a small enough area on the surface of the tape head to accommodate close gap-to-gap spacing, but does not cause tape tenting, would be desirable.
The present invention provides a magnetic tape head assembly with enclosed through slots to eliminate an air bearing at high tape speeds and lower operating tape tensions. In one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic tape head comprises a recording gap, containing read/write elements, across the width of the head and slots exposed to the tape head surface that faces the plane of the tape. These slots run through the head approximately perpendicular to the plane of the tape and are open to ambient pressure at a tape head surface other than the surface facing the plane of the tape. These slots are aligned with the read/write elements along the recording gap.